---
title: '"And while you''re in there, find out something about a fellow named Abe Lincoln"'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-abe-lincoln-peonage-1943/
description: Uncle Sam stands with folded arms beside a barred cell door while an FBI agent takes a farmer in overalls and a battered hat toward the cells.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. "And while you're in there, find out something about a fellow named

**Content note:** A cartoon showing Uncle Sam watching an FBI agent lead a farmer toward cells, with a headline about the indictment of sugar planters for holding Negro laborers in peonage, as published. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["And while you're in there, find out something about a fellow named Abe Lincoln", 1943 US cartoon: Uncle Sam stands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-abe-lincoln-peonage-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-abe-lincoln-peonage-1943.jpg)

# "And while you're in there, find out something about a fellow named Abe Lincoln"

Uncle Sam stands with folded arms beside a barred cell door while an FBI agent takes a farmer in overalls and a battered hat toward the cells; a pasted headline reads 'U.S. indicts sugar planters for holding Negro laborers in peonage'. The tell is a news item turned into a one-line verdict through the caption's invocation of Lincoln, framing the prosecution as the nation's own wartime commitment.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
U.S. INDICTS SUGAR PLANTERS FOR HOLDING NEGRO LABORERS IN PEONAGE.......NEWS ITEM.
"AND WHILE YOU'RE IN THERE, FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT A FELLOW NAMED ABE LINCOLN"
Alston
```

[← Oranje-Bode, first issue, 1943: birth of Princess Margriet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oranje-bode-margriet-1943/) ["A Negro crossed the Delaware with George Washington" - "And we'll continue to fight for liberty!" →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-and-we-will-continue-to-fight-for-liberty-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.